Ester 9

20 And Mordekhai [little man] wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Y’hudim (Judeans) that [were] in all the provinces of the king Achashverosh [I will be silent and poor], [both] near and far,

21 To establish [this] among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

22 As the days wherein the Y’hudim (Judeans) rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

23 And the Y’hudim (Judeans) undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordekhai [little man] had written unto them;

24 Because Haman [magnificent] the son of Hamdata [double], the Agagi [I will overtop], the enemy of all the Y’hudim (Judeans), had devised against the Y’hudim (Judeans) to destroy them, and had cast Pur [lot], that [is], the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

25 But when [Ester [star]] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Y’hudim (Judeans), should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallow (to approve, commend, accept)s.

26 For what reason they called these days Purim after the name of Pur [lot]. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and [of that] which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,

27 The Y’hudim (Judeans) ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their [appointed] time every year;

28 And [that] these days [should be] remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and [that] these days of Purim should not fail from among the Y’hudim (Judeans), nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

29 Then Ester [star] the queen, the daughter of Avichayil [Father of Strength], and Mordekhai [little man] the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.

30 And he sent the letters unto all the Y’hudim (Judeans), to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Achashverosh [I will be silent and poor], [with] words of peace and truth,

31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times [appointed], according as Mordekhai [little man] the Jew and Ester [star] the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.

32 And the decree of Ester [star] confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.